Opinion: Fashion On Food

For sometime now I have been interested in the relationship between the fashion and food industries. Over recent years we have become increasingly concerned about what we put into our bodies – the quality and source of our food- yet we still don’t place the same emphasis on what we put next to our skin- why is that?

Why wouldn’t we want to be concerned that the clothes we wear are made from ethically produced and physically safe materials? Why wouldn’t we want to make sure that the person who has made what we are wearing and who has touched the fabric we place intimately next to our body was paid a living wage?

I believe there is much that fashion can learn from the food industry. We are both involved with addressing the great global challenges. Just how will we feed, clothe and shelter the world? Fibre crops compete for land with food and energy crops. Fibre and food crops are responsible for pesticide and water issues and there is increasing recognition that neither organic cotton nor organic food are going to be the long term solution for the growing expectations that expanding populations across the world have for quality of life and improved living standards.

For me one of the overriding parallels is that fashion and food are about quality of life- you may not die if you don’t have fashion, as you do without food – but good food and lovely clothes make us as human beings feel better about ourselves. They play a vital role in how we express our humanity.